In late December 2022, the State of Israel’s 37th government was sworn in. Until Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza began, the focus of public debate in Israel was on the “judicial reform” promoted by the government.

However, alongside the judicial overhaul that the government is promoting, another change is being quietly implemented: the annexation overhaul, which is altering the nature of Israeli control in the West Bank. A joint report by Yesh Din, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Ofek Center and Breaking the Silence details the striking structural and legal changes and how they play out on the ground.

The Government of Israel is methodically implementing a strategy designed to achieve the political vision of applying full Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, while establishing a reality of Jewish supremacy and forcing the Palestinians living in the Area into to the smallest possible geographical space.

Many of the government’s steps alter the face of the West Bank and the structure of Israeli control there, including:

  • Appointing MK Smotrich as the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense and transferring broad powers from the Military Commander to MK Smotrich
  • Approving immense budgets for expanding the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and improving infrastructure and quality of life there
  • Retroactively authorizing Israeli outposts
  • Declaring state land and nature preserves
  • Denying settler violence and not enforcing the law
  • Abusing Palestinian communities, leading to their forced expulsion from their homes.

This current government is stripping off the mask that Israeli governments have insofar worn. For years, it presented Israel as a regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that upholds the legal obligations incumbent upon it in the West Bank, and whose administration’s decisions are subject to judicial review by the Israeli Supreme Court. The government’s policy now openly seeks to apply Israeli sovereignty and reinforce Jewish supremacy in the West Bank.